Intraoral Fluoride-Releasing Devices: A Literature Review

Abstract

Dental caries still continues to be a problem for majority of the individuals and it can be a serious problem for medically compromised, developmentally disabled and elderly individuals. Water fluoridation, systemic and topical fluorides are used for past many years to supply supplemental fluoride in order to combat dental caries. The latest fluoride research is investigating the use of slow-release devices for the long-term intraoral provision of fluoride. The present review addresses two main types of intraoral fluoride-releasing devices like the copolymer membrane device, glass device containing fluoride and some variations of these devices. These devices can significantly increase the salivary fluoride concentration without substantially affecting the urinary fluoride levels. A significant number of studies have confirmed that intraoral fluoride-releasing devices have great potential for use in preventing dental caries in children, high-caries-risk groups, and irregular dental attenders in addition to a number of other applications. As most of the studies done on these devices are in vitro and in vivo studies, more well-designed clinical trials are necessary to evaluate the results so that these devices can be used clinically.